Apparatus, methods and computer programs for metering and accounting for services accessed over a network

US7664711B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Vikas Agarwal · Noida, IN
• Neeran Karnik · Pune, IN
• Arun Kumar · New Delhi, IN

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 16, 2002
• Grant date: Feb 16, 2010
• Expiry date: Aug 29, 2026

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G07F17/0014
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Apparatus, methods and computer programs provided for metering and accounting in a commercial e-services infrastructure address the requirement for handling composite services in which higher-level services are built using simpler underlying services, each of which may be autonomously owned and operated. Metering records for each service underlying a composite service are correlated, enabling accounting which takes account of the usage and charges associated with the underlying services, on a per-request basis or on an aggregated basis for each customer-provider pair over a given billing period.